Left-Handed Engineers From MARZ
Christmas at Portia's - Reginald
Reg and Zephyr were at that other house again,
the one with many people. This time Boss-man had come with them... what
was his name... Reg couldn't remember. He did remember that Zephyr had said
that the man wasn't the Boss-man anymore, not since they stopped working
for the old company and started working for the new company. But it was
easier for Reg to think of him as Boss-man than to think of him as nothing
at all.
Boss-man had driven this time. The weather was bad and the roads were
bad so they left the old Buick in the garage and Boss-man had driven them
in his small car with the automatic transmission that hummed and squeaked
quietly. This time they had taken 3 to the house with many people. Zephyr
said it was because they couldn't ask Marsh... Marsh! That was his name!
They couldn't ask Marsh to take care of her at home because Marsh was coming
with them this time.
Reg was glad. He liked having 3 in the house with him. 3 didn't like
all the people, but he didn't, either. So 3 stayed in the room that Reg
and Zephyr slept in at night, the one with the big bed and the digital alarm
clock and the CD player and all the other things. Zephyr said that 3 had
to stay in the room anyway, because she made some of the people sick. Reg
was sure 3 didn't mean to make anyone sick, but then she had no reason not
to if she hated them so much, but it also occurred to him that maybe those
people were making up stories. Sometimes Zephyr believed in very strange
things just because some person told him those things were true.
The small children were here at this house. Reg liked the small children.
He liked how happy they were and how happy they made Zephyr. He liked
to make them happy too. He did it by making things for them. This time
the small children had gathered some pieces of things so he could build
toys for them. He had the box full of pieces of things. Now he just needed
to find the room where 3 was so he could be with her and build things in
the quiet.
The Other Voice tried to guide him. The room is a bedroom. We have
to find the bedroom.
Reg stood so the couch was to his right. There were people sitting on
it. He moved forward, past a door on his right... there wasn't supposed
to be a door, was there? The door was supposed to be behind him. But Zephyr's
chair was in the correct place, in front of him to his left.
Zephyr's chair isn't blue, the Other Voice pointed out.
Reg didn't know what to do about that.
You don't have to do anything. I'm just saying that's not Zephyr's
chair because it's blue, not brown. That means things are different here.
Reg was more concerned about finding the bedroom, which should be down
the hallway, which should be directly in front of him... and wasn't. Instead,
there was a closed door in front of him.
Open the door, the Other Voice suggested. Maybe the hallway
is behind it.
The hallway wasn't behind it. Coats were behind it. Damn, he always
got lost in this house. Every time. His increased frustration made it
more difficult to block out all the noise and talking and music, and that
annoyed him. Blocking out the music used up precious energy, but listening
to it wasted a lot more. And he also had smells and people to block out.
Try the staircase, the Other Voice suggested.
Reg thought that seemed like a good suggestion. The staircase was to
his left. He climbed the stairs. A person passed him, but as it brushed
against him he caught its heartbeat and realized it wasn't Zephyr or Boss-man
or one of the small children. He kept going to the top.
Turn left and enter the last door, the Other Voice instructed.
He did. He opened the door. The room looked like the one he was looking
for. He saw his suitcase and 3's empty carrying case and 3's litter box
with the roof on it. He saw the digital alarm clock with its large red numbers
and heard it too. He heard 3 and smelled her, although he couldn't see her,
and that made him feel better. Closing the door behind him, he placed the
box of pieces of things on the bed and sat beside it and took his small tools
out of his suitcase.
The components that the small children had given him seemed ideal to make
a spider. With his pliers, he got to work twisting and shaping a length
of copper wire. After a while, 3 rubbed herself against his ankle. She
hopped up onto the bed with him and greeted him with rhythmic purring and
he greeted her back.
The door opened and closed again. Twelve seconds later, a hand touched
Reg's arm and he recognized the heartbeat of one of the small children. It
was the larger, quicker one. There were too many rhythms, between 3's and
the small child's and his own and the high-frequency hum of the digital alarm
clock and the quieter, distanter hum of the CD player and the constant pulse
of electricity in the walls around them. But not a lot too many rhythms.
"Hi, Reg," the small child said.
It was time for conversation, even though it wasn't 8:00 pm yet. Reg
paused from building the toy so he could concentrate on remembering things
Zephyr had told him. "How are you," he recited.
"Okay. I like your cat. What's his name?"
Reg pondered the question until he determined what the small child meant.
"3," he said.
The small child giggled. "You named him 3? How come? I never heard of
a cat named 3 before."
Reg tried to think of more conversational things to say.
"Can I pet him?" the small child asked. She leaned back without removing
her hand from Reg's arm. 3 shifted and moved a short distance away. "He's
shy, like you," said the small child.
Reg found something to say. "Thank you," he said. Then he wondered if
his words had been poorly chosen.
The small child tensed and then relaxed and giggled. "You're welcome,"
she said. "What are you making?" she said.
Reg looked again at the beginnings of a spider resting in his hands.
He explained to the small child how he used a parabolic function to get
the copper wire to curve just so, and how he would arrange the eight legs
in a radiating pattern in accordance with the alignment of the rubber cap
abdomen and plastic hemispherical cephalothorax. The small child listened
attentively. Reg began to feel better about his conversation skills. Zephyr
had told him to talk about things he knew. Zephyr had been wise.
3 moved closer but still remained on his right side, while the small child
was on his left side. As the small child listened to his explanation, she
reached gradually around him. 3's heartbeat sped up, but as Reg talked,
she became more comfortable.
"Cool," the small child said after a while. "It's a spider, right? Hey,
I think 3 likes me. Look, he's smelling me. Look, Reg!"
Reg was already aware.
"Reg, is 3 a guy or a girl?" the small child asked.
Reg was confused. 3 was a cat. He confirmed this with the Other Voice,
who concurred, and then informed the small child.
"I know that!" the small child insisted. "But is 3 a boy cat or a girl
cat?"
The Other Voice determined what the small child meant and instructed Reg
how to answer. "3 is female," he told her.
The small child hesitated for a moment and then said, "Oh. Female means
girl, right?"
She went back to befriending 3, and 3 grew gradually more comfortable
with the gentleness of the small child, and Reg clipped off the first section
of copper wire and started creating the second leg. On the other side of
the door and down the stairs, people made noise and talked and their hearts
beat and music played and new smells and tastes were created. On the other
side of the one window in the room, rain started to fall arhythmically, as
rain in the wind tends to do.
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